DVD: Rush - R30: Live in Frankfurt

So I finally received via my home DVD service (which I refuse to name because I dislike their corporation enough to not promote them, but got some free sub for a time and will use it in the interim) the latest Rush live spectacle, R30: Live in Frankfurt.

As general concerts go, it is definately topline. As Rush shows go, they have done better.

The lads are well-preserved after 3 decades admittedly (most likely due to their comparatively clean living. The Stones they ain't, current legal embroglio excluded), and their show is a testament to how you can still rock out and not look decrepit or silly in your 50s.

In keeping with their notoriously off-kilter humor, the opening sequence is an animated montage of their various album cover concepts and into a strange skit with Jerry Stiller, and the intermission visuals feature the trio as a set of Bobble-Heads taking on a dragon in a weird Godzilla-like short. Funny the first time out, but I could people who actually end up buying this disc fast forwarding through those parts real-soon-quick.

As for the look of the show itself, the staging is somewhat more spartan than past tours, but it is still packed with a heavy effects and video panel rig worthy of their reputation. The lighting is really beautiful, saturated colors and change often without being distracting, much like the cinematography.

The camerawork is quite good, with all three guys getting ample time in front of the lens, something that has not always happened, particularly with Neil being somewhat handled badly on the A Show of Hands video release.

The concert is the meat of this, and it is pretty solid as Rush goes. They cover a really wide berth of material, with much of the 70s done in medley format. This is a good thing. While I like a lot of the riffs from that period, most of the songwriting was atrocious, and Geddy still occasionally tries to hit those banshee-register notes that make me want to run outside and fight things. They otherwise play from all periods of their canon, with Pearts kit an ever looming behemoth on the back third of the stage, and Alex switching guitars every couple of songs (a PRS, a Gibson, a Tele and a dual-neck from his robe-wearing days all made prominent appearances). The sound is clean and well-seperated, so you can hear your favorite virtuoso in unmuddied sonic glory.

The major disappointments for me was that they did not play more material from Power Windows and Grace Under Pressure (although the fact that they played what I consider one of the best songs, Between the Wheels, was a real treat), and Neil's solo was a bit of a mess. It would appear that he tried to improvise a bit much; instead of the taut, well-composed percussion fusillades we end up with a series of interesting parts interspersed in between numerous aimless segues. The Ryhthm Method, his ever evolving solo drum piece that showed a consistent level of improvement over decades of incremental development on all their earlier live albums, is replaced by Der Trommler, which keeps a few key bits of TRM and otherwise runs them through a Cuisinart along with some hokey pseudo-jazz noodling that comes off really ill-assembled. Ronald Shannon Jackson he ain't.

The other thing that lost me a bit was the fact that they plopped some covers in there. Four of them. One of them would have been ok (I really dig their version of The Seeker), but four is a waste of space better reserved to your own rather byzantine catalog guys.


Bonus footage is substantial, but much of it is a bit dull. It is interesting to see well established guys like Vernon Reid and Chris Cornell do their brief 15 second fanboy blurbs, and the in-studio version of Closer to the Heart (done for Tsunami Relief) with one of the fellows from Barenaked ladies (and some weird block-jawed and bullit-proof optics wearing dude) is a nice coda to the bonus DVD.

The interview footage is largely fluff, with the exception of their big award recption at the Juno's, where Neil provides a rather poingant and funny acceptance speech with his typically dry delivery. If anything his later interviews are interesting because as rock stars go, he is ridiculously articulate without being an arrogant snot. Actually all three speak well, and it is always great to see celebrities who are capable of gluing subjects and predicates into complete thoughts worth listening to and not stuffed with ummm and uhhh filler.

The 70s and 80s interviews are dull, and clearly for the most hardcore of old-school Rush fans,who still pine for the days when Geddy regualrly sang in a register that would confuse bat sonar and songs were 20 minute long epics inspired by various literary references (JRR Tolkien, Ayn Rand and John Steinbeck all come to mind).

Overall a pretty good deal. i would not receommend it over Rush in Rio or the Grace Under Pressure tour vids, but otherwise is a damn solid testament to their live prowess.